These are works made in ceramics in
Italy for the 2nd International Biennial of Ceramics in Contemporary Art,
Albisola organized by Tiziana Casapietra
and Roberto Constantino. Ceramic Studio: Ernan, Albisola. Graphic assistance
by: Alida Sini and Gianna Vacca

This work was produced in the late
fall and winter of 2002/03 - months before the Second War against Iraq.

My concept for this work consisted
in taking logos, titles and other interface elements from News Broadcasts
concerning the current Iraq crisis and offering them to a person from
Iraq to respond. Usually, these logos are associated with US network news
and can be confrontational, aggressive if not even cynical, arrogant and
scary: NEXT TARGET?, SHOWDOWN IRAQ, WOULD U.S. USE NUKES? etc. My next
step was to search for an Iraqi calligrapher that would be willing to
work with me and respond in his own way to my proposals.

I was lucky and able to find Ghazi
Al Delaimi who was born in Badgad and lives today in Duesseldorf with
a formation as a calligrapher and graphic designer.He also works as a
painter and a sculptor.

Over several weeks in Winter of 2002/03
we have exchanged images which he responded to: the process of our exchange
can be seen below.

All the sentences written in Arabic
are entirely conceived by Ghazi Al Delaimi and don't show any input by
me. I didn't try to influence or censor his responses. These are entirely
Ghazi's views and statements.

Photographs of high resolution images
can be obtained by clicking the image and dragging the image on your desktop.
photocredit: Rainer Ganahl.

No photo can be reproduced without
my consent and without giving the full title and translation of Al Delaimi's
sentence.